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This paper contributes to an understanding of overseas professional development of teacher educators through an analysis of the learning experiences of a group of Chinese teacher educators (CTEs) in Canada. Drawing on qualitative data, research findings reveal specific areas of knowledge are deemed by the CTEs as essential for enhancing their own practice and noteworthy characteristics of their approaches to learning overseas. The CTEs' sense-making processes also provide insights into the complexity of overseas learning and the necessity of "unlearning" long-held beliefs and practices, which enables the development of new ideas, knowledge, and skills. • This paper analyses the overseas learning experiences of teacher educators from 31 key Chinese teacher universities. • The teacher educators identify approaches that are essential for the improvement of Chinese teacher education. • Their professional learning is characterised by a pragmatic search of solutions to problems in China. • Their sense-making of overseas learning illuminates the complexity of cross-boundary interaction. • Analysis of cultural differences reveals nuanced but important aspects of professional development in international context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]